Monthly Archives: Jan 2014

Loss of a Friend

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Today was a good day. I had fun, studied a little, woke up early and bathed. It was perfect.
Night fell, and I opened facebook. Usual notifications on likes, comments, apparently a request to like a page too. I scrolled through the chat screen. There! Bharath was online!
“Hey!”, I started.
“hi dude”
“Wassup?”
“Hey Vk, one sad news dude”
“what?”
“Our school friend Bhargava passed away a day before yesterday in an accident”
My fingers were typing the condolences and sad smileys; and my mind was pre-occupied with the moments which come up whenever I hear “Bhargava”.
Rewind to 2007, my first day in higher secondary school. I sat with Bharath, Muthu, and Bhargava. I had many other friends like Chetan, Jaspal, Jigar, Karthik, so on. . But, its Bhargava who died. So, I’ll write on him to vent my regret. I remember him as a good, lean guy who was never afraid to do anything — literally anything.
There was one day, when he came to my home for group study. We had our board exams. He entered my room. And, “Enna da! Evalo books ae vechi enna panna pora? Potti kada torakka poriya?”
\*translation — what the hell! What are you gonna do with so many books? Planning to opening a Petty shop?*/
And we studied. I was in computer science group, and he was in biology. He came for chemistry. He even noted a jar of water with 2 glasses on my desk. He told, “You’re a pakka Seth. .” I snapped, “It’s a plastic jug dude!”
\*Translation — Seth vaguely refers to a Madu (Marwari) guy*/
2 weeks later, I went to his home. He guided me to his room. There was a hill of books, neatly piled up one on the other. The pile was taller than him, and I was 1.5 feet taller than him. I chuckled. I didn’t have a camera then. I saw a jar of water on his deck. I asked, “what’s that?”. “I borrowed your secret for scoring high marks”, pat came the reply. I sighed, “If you have bowel movement problems, then that jar will help you”. We laughed.
He was so good. One day, I fought with him. In class. A local rowdy style fist fight. And, it was a draw. After school, we parted our ways. And never heard of him. And when I did, he was no more. A car run over him and his bike  near  Light house.
I couldn’t say him good bye. I couldn’t be there for his funeral. I couldn’t tell him how good a friend he was for me. When I had the time, 3.5 years to be approximate, I thought “I’ll meet him later. Where’s he gonna go anyway?”. Well, he’s gone for good now.
I want to cry, sob. But; all the memories I have of him are so jovial that I can’t stop smiling and roll on the floor laughing. Maybe he wants to be remembered that way. Or maybe, I’m hysterical.
Reaper, you made your presence felt. Don’t let me forget that. Don’t let me forget the eternal truth.
For more, visit Vivek Apparently Writes

Stripping the Façade — Conversations with K. Hariharan and Kamal Hassan

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Date: 13-Jan-2014
Place: Sri Muthu Venkatasubbarao Concert Hall
 
“O my god! I can’t believve I’m gonna see him in another hour!” “He’s just like di Caprio. The Indian version!” Such were the conversations around me. I’m seated in the hall, waiting for the no-nonsense man to step in. And, voila! He’s here! “Love you Kamal!”, I screamed. Even I’m a hypocrite.
The Hindu organized the Lit for Life 3-day fest, and this was the third day. I will not talk about the arrangements, the decoration or even introduce to you the 2 gems. Dropping straight on what happened there, K.Hariharan kickstarts the conversation explaining the redundancy of the Censor Board. “Why do we need CBFC? All that CBFC is made to curtail, filter is readily brashly and freely available in websites like RedTube, and many others!” The topic was “Lights, Camera and Censor! Moral Policing in cinema”
They talked on the need to regulate and exploit the X-rated films industry, which is currently sprawling underground — like prostitution is regulated in Bangladesh. As I mentioned before, Kamal hassan is a no-nonsense man. I got to see why. Inevitably talks turned on to the communalization of movies and on Viswaroopam. Kamal shared, “When the muslim groups threatened and demanded that I drop Viswaroopam, a friendly Hindu group came by and offered protection. I exclaimed, ‘let me make a film on Hindus. Then you can come and protect me.’ Even the moolahs of Mumbai watched my movie and wondered what was so anti-muslim about it!”
Talks then turned to the autocracy of the Producer’s Councils and many other groups which are treating cinema like a lactating cow — not like an art. He pointed out that one of the rules of the council explicitly states that there can only be makeup men, not makeup women. “since when have men outwitted women in makeup?!”, he exclaimed.
In the conversation, they went on to aver that cinema is merely a reflector, not an influxor. I had reservations on their statement. Then, he neatly busted the 100Cr mania with a cliché. “If the movie tickets are approximately priced at Rs. 100, and there are hundreds of crores of Indians. So, if 1Cr people watch a movie, you earn 100Cr. Don’t you think it’s a failure because the other 99Cr + people didn’t watch the film and don’t have access to cinema?!”, he made his point.
I was hoping for Baradwaj Rangan to show up also, but he didn’t. I would’ve loved him to come on stage and talk over the topic.
For more, visit Vivek Apparently Writes